APPENDIX G 



385 



POOR JTTDGMENT IN MARKETING 

 SQUABS. Members of the National Squab 

 Breeders' Association will be interested in 

 the following letter received from New Jersey: 

 I take my squabs to a New York supply 

 house, and am getting top prices. I have 

 found out that some breeders are considerably 

 to blame if low prices for squabs prevail. A 

 commission man sold me eight dozen eight- 

 pound squabs for S1.96 a dozen, and the 

 breeder received $1.87 a dozen, minus express- 

 age. I sold these squabs at $3 a dozen, but I 

 can not always do this, as they smelled a rat." 



The above is an instance where one squab 

 breeder profited by the ignorance of another. 



What happened was this: The breeder of 

 the squabs had eight dozen good ones which he 

 could have sold at retail by the use of ordinary 

 intelligence and the directions given by the 

 National Squab Magazine for $5 a do7.en, and 

 at wholesale for at least $3 a dozen. He 

 parted with them at the absurdly low price 

 of $1.87 a dozen. The expressman or other 

 middleman reported to him that the sale had 

 been made at $1.96 and took off nine cents a 

 dozen commission, probably figuring at five 

 per cent. The breeder did not get the whole 

 of $1.87, because the express charges had to 

 come out of that. It reads like an express 

 company sale. All interstate express com- 

 panies have what is called order and com- 

 mission departments. They will take any 

 farm produce and sell it on commission. In 

 such cases the wagon starts out from the depot 

 with the goods and the driver calls at a con- 

 venient marketplace. It is for the interest of 

 the express company to sell the goods at highest 

 price so that they can get a higher commission 

 but their interest is not nearly so strong as that 

 of the shipper and as a matter of fact, in the 

 case of perishable goods, they are anxious to 

 get rid of the load in the quickest possible time. 

 The buyers know all this and taking advantage 

 of the circumstances, buy at what is practically 

 their own figure. The expressman will put up 

 no argument with them and will not move on 

 to another place but concludes the sale then 

 and there. Franklin wrote: "If you want a 

 thing done well, do it yourself." If you wish 

 your squabs sold properly, sell them yourself; 

 you are the interested party and don't think 

 that anybody else will fight your battles for 



The man who sold the squabs for $3 a dozen 

 made his profit because his intelligence was 

 superior to the breeder's. It is a case of 

 knowledge and skill every time when squabs 

 are marketed. It seems incredible that the 

 original breeder was a member of otu- associa- 

 tion. , . . 



Some might ask: Was not the commission 

 man to blame for buying the squabs so cheaply^ 

 Did he not rob the breeder? It is business, and 

 honorable business, to buy in the cheapest and 

 sellin the dearest market. The breeder was to 

 blame, if anybody, in giving up his squabs so 

 cheaply. He would not have done so, had ne 

 known that another breeder would step in and 

 buy and again sell, at a profit. This lack of 



knowledge on the part of any squab breeder is 

 easily remedied by joining the National Squab 

 Breeders' Association, subscribing for the mag- 

 azine, reading it every month, and remem- 

 bering what he reads. The subscription price 

 of the magazine for a year can be saved on 

 every dozen of squabs marketed if the reader 

 will sell as we have instructed him to sell. 



HOW I CATCH MATES THROUGH PEEP- 

 HOLES, by Arthur H. Penny. I have been in 

 the squab business four years, and have learned 

 by hard experience a few things that may help 

 others just beginning. From my observation, 

 and what I have learned from hotel stewards, 

 commission men, too, I believe that Homers are 

 much the best for the squab breeder, unless 

 he has very fancy private trade. My squabs 

 bring $4 a dozen for all weighing seven pounds 

 to the dozen and over, and I find this a very 

 good price. If I had all ten and twelve-pound 

 squabs, I could not hope to get very much more 

 for them, and taking into consideration the 

 greater amount of feed required for the larger 

 birds, and the fewer squabs produced, I consider 

 the Homers more profitable. I have never seen 

 described my method of mating, which has 

 proven easy and satisfactory. I have several 

 pens for the youngsters that are boarded all 

 around, with a peep-hole, close by a slide in each 

 door. When the birds are mating, I watch 

 them through the peep-hole, and when I see a 

 pair together in a nestbox, building a nest, I 

 walk in on them quickly, and almost always 

 catch one in each hand. If I am not certain I 

 have the right ones, I let them go and try again. 

 For this method, rather a small pen is best, and 

 not more than one hundred birds in a pen. 



COST PER PAIR FOR ME, $1.60 A YEAR, 

 by G. Allan Sorrick. During the first week in 

 March, with a pen of eighteen working pairs, I 

 endeavored to ascertain the cost of feeding a 

 pair of breeders for a year with feed per bushel 

 as follows: Com .80, wheat $1.20, peas $1.59, 

 millet $1.38, buckwheat $1.11, grit $1.50 per 

 100. Total pounds fed 30 3-4, cost 57 cents, or 

 $1.60 a pair a year- One year ago I made the 

 same test, result $1.80 a pair. I credit the 

 difference to buying feed in larger quantities, 

 and a different method of feeding. The Pitts- 

 burg wholesale prices to jobbers and retailers, 

 which are an advance over prices paid to pro- 

 ducers and shippers, were from December 1 to 

 April $5.50 and $5.75. Newspaper market 

 quotations $4.75 and $5. 



Few squabhouses are heated. Cold air, if 

 pure, will not hurt pigeons if they are well fed. 

 It is customary for the old birds to hover their 

 young more closely during freezing weather. 

 If the pigeons are not broken in to cold weather 

 you will find some frozen squabs in the squab- 

 house if you forget and leave the windows open 

 on such a flock some night in zero weather. 

 The Squab Magazine has printed articles 

 written by Canadian breeders telling how they 

 breed squabs through the winter as well as 

 the summer in houses built of cotton cloth. 



